Friday Freebie: Discovery Girls Magazine!

I love reading in the summer, especially fun, colorful, helpful lifestyle magazines. I can spend hours at bookstores discovering new magazines and love sharing finds with friends.

Being big fans of the Discovery Channel at our house (Shark Week!), My Shiny Monkey recently discovered Discovery Girls in a Google search. This is a 10-year old magazine created by girls, for girls 8 and up. Sound familiar.... ?  It only publishes every other month (bimonthly), but really well done.  High five to Catherine Lee and her daughter Alexa Lee who keep the magazine honest and deal with a wide range of topics, from quizzes and fashion to friendship and bullying.




The good folks at Discovery Girls magazine sent us a review copy of the magazine, their cool Back To School issue, and a book, the Fab Girls Guide to Friendship Hardship, which we'll review next week.  Here's the 411 on DG magazine... please comment below what you think and YOU could win your own free one-year subscription!

Here's a quick rundown:

Discovery Girls Magazine features girls from across the country and around the world, and "Up Front" lets you meet the DGs in a photo collage shot in their state, and then separate photos of each girl with a short "dream job/my style is/pet peeve/fave subject/fun fact" Q&A, and then lots of adorable photos and fun captions from following these girls around fun places in their state. No fake models - all real girls - and age appropriate content and advertising. A great idea.

"Ask Ali" is a long-standing Q&A by real girls (you can ask Ali right now by clicking here and sending your question!).  This issue covers what to do when your friends are all texting and you don't have a phone (communicate your feelings), if you should stop sleeping with stuffed animals (sure!), girls who only have boy friends, not girls (try to find girls who also like "boy" things like Star Wars), and even what to do with a "drama queen" friend (ignore it, be calm, you can only control your response). I love this advice section!

"You Said It" is a colorful, graphical poll page asking kids how they feel about subjects like "how do you get along with your parents". For parents, this is an interesting page to validate that your tween isn't the only one feeling the way she does... for tweens, this validates their fears, feelings, concerns.  Love this too.

This month's feature is about new privileges, since September represents new beginnings.  They break it down into chunks of "You want... your own cell phone.  You'll get.... (benefits) and the other column is "You'll have to..." (responsibilities). Smart. A great conversation starter for both girls and their parents.

"Web buzz" throws out a topic ("Being popular or making good grades... what's more important?) and simply prints reader responses.  It's fun to see girls' names in the magazine!

[Want to contribute to the magazine? Click here for how to get involved... it's easy!]

Lastly, the magazine features great photography and fun layouts, quizzes and reviews, health and beauty tips for girls, fashion photo features, celebrities, a "how to" section, and much more. Compared to other magazines, this one is 58 pages long - tons of content - for only $4.95.

Discovery Girls Magazine... where have you been? Why didn't we find you sooner? You are like having a cool older sister to clue you in on all the important stuff.

Don't forget to comment below with your name and email address and you could win your own subscription to DG Magazine!